2022 Lolonis Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, Redwood Valley

Vintage 2022 marked the 4th consecutive year of drought in Northern California. Fortunately, the 80-year SB vines at Lolonis—reportedly the oldest in North America (!)—know how to weather the stress. They simply set out fewer clusters, and then put their full life force into ripening those precious berries. Drought years always ramp up concentration and this 2022 bottling is a profoundly powerful white wine. We picked these miniaturized golden berries on the morning of Sep. 28th and whole cluster pressed them into a mix of puncheon barrels, stainless steel barrels, and one cigar-shaped barrel (thank you for the inspiration, Didier Dagueneau).

The wine took a long, long time to ferment on wild yeasts, and simply wouldn't finish its malolactic fermentation. It just stopped, but at last gave us a deeply mineral expression of soil with white grapefruit, tarragon, Key lime, jasmine flower, satsuma all playing roles. Put a glass next to a wedge of aged goat cheese and go directly to nirvana.